Samuel Zürcher

SharePoint Server

Switzerland

It all started in 2008, when Samuel became a SharePoint administrator at a Swiss University. Samuel was astonished by the activity in the English-speaking SharePoint community; he also heard and read much about the German community. "However, there seemed to be very little happening in Switzerland," Samuel recalls. "Over time, of course , I discovered quite a few events, though all of a local nature, sparsely networked and not really virtual. That gave me the idea to independently establish a SharePoint community for Switzerland. I just wanted to create a platform which brings together and links all those interested in SharePoint." In an endeavor to reserve www.sharepointcommunity.ch, Samuel encountered the IOZ in Sursee, at that time the most active SharePoint community in Switzerland; Samuel met Stefan Heinz here, and a society named SharePointCommunity.ch was founded. The website went online in January 2010. "It hasn't let me go since then. I love the work in an international environment, the events, lectures, and workshops which I can hold, and would never want to miss this," Samuel is thrilled to note.

After a few years of SharePoint experience as an employee, Samuel, together with Christian Glessner, a SharePoint MVP from Germany, founded the company Experts Inside in 2011. Here, Samuel is engaged in all areas of SharePoint and Office 365, as well as Microsoft Azure, the specialty being collaboration and content with a focus on social collaboration. At Experts Inside, Samuel deals with the entire value chain of SharePoint and Co., primarily involving enterprise customers, but increasingly also small and medium-sized companies, especially in the Cloud sector. For Samuel, the joy of cool solutions is always in the foreground.

Since becoming an MVP, Samuel has participated in a diverse range of events. He gets lots of recognition for his distinction as an MVP; for example, he is often accepted as a speaker or requested for special roles. According to Samuel, this is natural also because he is currently very active in the German-speaking region. The MVP Award has allowed Samuel to network even more closely with the community.

At the focus of Samuel's community projects, of course, is the website www.sharepointcommunity.chwhose continuous further development and optimization takes up a great deal of time. Another important subject is Collaboration Days, to whose organization Samuel devotes a lot of attention. Other events such as ShareConf, Tech Ed, and Microsoft Tech days, too, are on Samuel's agenda, whether he is to share his knowledge as a speaker or exhibition expert, or simply be present as a participant.

Samuel has enjoyed many moments as an MVP: when he was notified of his reappointment or meeting with other MVPs at events. Samuel describes his experiences as follows: "Certainly, it's always great to find out that many people know you, without your having been aware of this. The MVP Award puts you on a certain 'trust level' which also advances you professionally. I think that's great. I hope to experience lots more moments like these. Many thanks to all who support me in my work. I love SharePoint.“